|
Subscribe
to Business Bullet
|
Reflections 2005
"The further backward you look, the further forward you can see." - Winston Churchill
This post is a reflection of what I learnt in 2005.
1. "Rich people have large libraries, poor people have large TV's" - Dan S. Kennedy
This year, I did the unthinkable. I got rid of my TV! Well, it worked for 2 weeks and then the football season started.
Even though the TV is back, the amount of time it stays on is down drastically. No soaps. No news. No reality TV. The only time its on now is during games, if some wicked show is on on history or pbs channel, a good movie on weekends or during the late night TV infomercials. A guilty pleasure is watching Comedy Central too sometimes.
But how did a regular TV "crap" watcher change his habits and start watching good TV? Simple: lose the remote. Hide your remote and you too will start watching less and good TV. So much of nothing comes on TV that you won't go through the trouble of getting up, walking to your TV and switching channels every 3 minutes.
No TV has improved my productivity a lot! It gave me more reading time. So what did I actually read?
2. "If I show up at your house 10 years from now, and find nothing in your living room but Reader's Digests, nothing in your bedroom but the latest Dan Brown novel... I will chase you down to the end of your driveway and back shouting 'Where are the damn books?... Why are you living the mental equivalent of a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese life?'" - Stephen King
The year started off with a lot of junk reading. But midway through 2005, I kicked off many of my poor reading habits.
No news. I stopped reading newspapers totally. And haven't missed a thing. The papers cover things which will never affect you - and you can never affect them news either. How a celebrity was caught cheating is worthless for you to know.
But what about news that can really affect you? Like natural disaster warnings? If its a news story that will affect you, you will hear about it from your friends. Sometimes even before the newspapers cover them.
I cut down on my blog reading too. Its a lot of bs to read to get through a few golden gems.
Instead, I read more magazines. Business 2.0 is my current favourite biz magazine. Sciam Mind is my fav non-biz magazine. And then I read more research papers (especially on topics of "attention" and "discipline"). They are very hard to read - a lot of big boring words (covering interesting topics). But hardly anyone reads them, so I get an edge over other people - arming myself with powerful information that no one else knows about.
3.a. "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." - Eleanor Roosevelt
3.b. "Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." - Tom Landry
This year saw me finding a lot of discipline in getting things done. I might be the most disorganized person out there... my desks always a mess. I read 3-4 books together. And I pile up work.
This year, I strived to change all that. Curiousity took me to venture into learning about other peoples systems of planning and organizing. Most of what I came across is junk. Using expensive softwares is no way to go.
My planning is done on a piece of paper. Using mind maps. Following it with a detailed list that covers finance, production and marketing. I might tell you about my simple planning process sometime later.
And then I spent a lot of time finding hacks and simple systems that force me to get my plans implemented. Reading research on self-discipline and the human mind gave me insights that hardly any of those self help gurus know.
Here are some of the simple hacks.
Action Summary:
- Sit down for an evening and make a rough plan. Nothing fancy. Pick up a pen and paper and write what you'll have to do to improve your health, wisdom, wealth and happiness in the coming year.
- Watch less TV. Get rid of your remote.
- Instead, read more books. Read things that others don't.
Email Post to a friend
Posted on 1/02/2006 | Permalink | |
- Read the Click to read New Posts
 |
biztactics.com quick & effective small business marketing tactics |
Marketing eYe:
- Can see the hidden tactics that made other products profitable
- Will reveal those tactics to you on this blog
Click "CTRL + D" to bookmark the marketing eye blog
Top 5 posts
Read these first - The essential Marketing eYe Posts
Sponsors
Text Link Ads script error: local_176136.xml does not exist. Please create a blank file named local_176136.xml.